3/1/09 N. Coast Steel

I almost slept through my alarm this morning, luckily for me my son Owen came in to our room at 4:30 am needing to go to the bathroom.  Once Owen's needs were satisfied I quickly gathered my last remaining bits of gear and headed out to the coast to meet up with Spot and Kykfshr for some winter steelhead kayak drifting.

Despite all the recent rain, the river was fairly low which is probably a good thing for our kayaks.


For the most part paddling was pretty straight forward with only a few sections fo faster water to deal with.  Here are some pictures from some calm stretches.




We were all fishing jigs under floats and we'd paddle up to a stretch of river with a nice deep slot on one side of the river and anchor on the other side.  Usually this meant sitting in our kayak in water that was easily shallow enough to wade in.  But hey, we need those AOTY points so "from a kayak" it is.   We joked a bit about how we couldn't wait to catch our first fish so that we could forgo the kayak a bit.

Spot struck steel first with a nice hatchery fish. I have some video of the battle but it's taking forever to upload.





A short time later I managed my first steelhead ever.  I think Kykfshr has a bunch of battle shots that he'll hopefully post when he gets back to the internet.  He's not pretty, but he was a hatchery fish and my wife would shot me if I didn't bring something home given the chance.  I had a bit tonight, not quite salmon but on par with most trout I've had.





Kykfshr didn't get one today, but he's already on the board with a steelhead so we didn't feel too bad for him.

We did run into a rather large pile of trees down that blocked our passage downstream to the car.  One of the nice things about a kayak versus a drift boat in this type of situation is that it's much easier to bushwhack with a kayak.  Here's a shot of the river continuing from underneath the log jam.


We lucked out on the weather.  It sprinkled off and on all day but it didn't really pour until we got off the water.  We didn't see another angler on the water all day except for a few at our initial launch site. 

Thanks Mark and Scott for a great day on the river.

Brian

Nice trip report; very nice pics of fish and water- what river was that?

Rob.

UNREAL guys.. a two for! A great looking drift and cool to see the teamwork. Congrats! Wait a sec.. are you OR boyz actually teaming to maintain AOTY dominance? Come on Wa boyz, we got some work to do!!!

Z

GOOD JOB!!!!

Nice work.. thats a great little river. Surprised the water was still that low.  Now that you know the drill the clack is putting out some fish (had a good day yesterday out of the PB)  and is a little closer to PDX.  But those smaller coastal rivers might be more the ticket for yaks.

PP,

Closer to PDX would be great, but not having any other boats or even bank fishermen around was nice, especially when you're new to kayak steelhead fishing.  I'd be up for trying the clack at some point.

Brian

Very nice!!  Nice pics too. 

What river is this?

Well done gentlemen.

-Allen

Way to go guys!! Congrats on your first Steelhead B. Nice fishies... Aero jig?

Nice fishies... Aero jig?

At least one of them was.  I think I lost three jigs and a nice Thill float for the day.  I think I need to go and buy some jig tying materials.

UNREAL guys.. a two for! A great looking drift and cool to see the teamwork. Congrats! Wait a sec.. are you OR boyz actually teaming to maintain AOTY dominance? Come on Wa boyz, we got some work to do!!!

Z

Come on now Z-, we don't need to team up to dominate you Warshington boyz..   

However, Brian's wife does have kykfshr and me on retainer to ensure that he beats YOU this year.   

However, Brian's wife does have kykfshr and me on retainer to ensure that he beats YOU this year.   

He's off to a good start!

Z

Nice work.. thats a great little river. Surprised the water was still that low.  Now that you know the drill the clack is putting out some fish (had a good day yesterday out of the PB)  and is a little closer to PDX.  But those smaller coastal rivers might be more the ticket for yaks.

I think we found the kayak drift niche yesterday.  When the rivers are too low for driftboats, a kayak can still be pushed, pulled, dragged or carried between floatable stretches.  I wish I'd known this 2 months ago!  I can only imagine what the fishing would have been like during the low flow days in January after all those fresh fish had just moved in.....

nice job guys. the necanicum is a beautiful river. did you know about the log jam before you got there? how did you get around it?

I don't remember them mentioning anything about the Necanicum?